NEWS OF THE DAY
_1 Saudi activists arrested: Saudi Arabia is holding and interrogating at least 10 women’s rights activists — seven women and three men — without any access to lawyers, according to people familiar with the arrests. The detentions are seen as a culmination of a steady crackdown on perceived critics of the government. The arrests cast a pall over recent social openings being pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, including a historic decision to lift the world’s only ban on women driving on June 24. Amnesty International says Prince Mohammed’s promises of reform “fall flat amid the intensifying crackdown on dissenting voices in the kingdom.”
_2 Deadly protest: Officials say nine protesters were killed when police opened fire on demonstrators demanding the closure of a south Indian copper plant. Thousands of protesters turned out Tuesday amid months of rallies against the Sterlite copper smelting plant, which demonstrators say has polluted the area’s groundwater. Media reports from the town of Tuticorin say that pushing and shoving between protesters and police turned more violent, with demonstrators pelting police with stones, overturning cars and setting fires. The top official in Tamil Nadu state, K. Palaniswami, said police “had to take action under unavoidable circumstances to protect public life and property.”
_3 Catalan leader: A German court on Tuesday rejected a request from prosecutors to take former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont back into custody pending a decision on whether he can be extradited to Spain. Puigdemont was detained by German police March 25 after crossing the border from Denmark. Spain had issued a European arrest warrant and sought his extradition on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds — charges that stem from an unauthorized referendum last year on Catalonia’s independence from Spain. _4 U.S. diplomates expelled: President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday said he was expelling the top U.S. diplomat in Venezuela and his deputy for allegedly conspiring against his government and trying to sabotage the country’s recent presidential election. “The empire doesn’t dominate us here,” Maduro said in a televised address, giving charge d’affaires Todd Robinson and his deputy Brian Naranjo 48 hours to leave the country. “We’ve had enough of your conspiring.” Tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela have mounted following Maduro’s victory in presidential elections on Sunday, a vote the White House has branded a “sham.” Maduro accused the diplomats of pressuring antigovernment presidential aspirants not to compete in the race. _5 “Stay in jail”: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told drug suspects in a central province Tuesday to look for a way to get arrested and then stay in jail if they want to live longer, in his latest threat in his bloody antidrug crackdown. Duterte did not identify the targets of his warning in a televised threat-laden speech, but referred to people who grew rich through illegal drugs in Cebu province. “You know if I were you guys in Cebu, stay in jail. You want to live longer? Stay in jail,” he said. More than 4,000 mostly poor drug suspects have been killed in clashes with police that officials say erupted because the suspects fought back. Human rights watchdogs have cited much higher death tolls, which the government disputes. Duterte denies condoning extrajudicial killings.